Taming Hall

CHAPTER 3

  William dropped the 25lb weights he held and smiled at Andrew, “What do you mean no?”

“I mean I couldn’t say I wanted a real relationship on the third date, how needy do you want me to look?” Andrew Jameson slowed the treadmill and grabbed two bottle of water. He had been the only friend of William since their middle school days, he was a son to one of the most successful business moguls in Europe but spent all his time in the States where he worked on his passion for art. He had gone to art school the moment he left high school and had displayed some of his pieces at the MET exhibit, he was making a name for himself and was proud of all he had accomplished. He had decided to take a few weeks off to gain inspiration and was currently in the training room of the Hall family mansion discussing events of his relationship the previous night during their evening workout.

“So you went on a third date with this girl and yet you didn’t answer her question. I think you might have a problem there man.” William caught the bottle of water thrown at him.

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Can’t two people have a mutually enjoyable physical relationship without the question of ‘where is this going’?” Andrew winced.

William laughed hard and choked on the water, “How do……. you feel……. about her?” he tried to talk between coughs.

“I happen to like her a lot, but I can’t deal with anything permanent right now.”

“I think you should consider the fact that you are having feelings for this girl.” William sad a d dodged the bottle Andrew hurled at him, “Oooooh, it seems I’ve struck a nerve.” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“You’re a d**k, lets grab a bite.” Andrew grabbed his towel and walked out of the room.

“I’m up for junk food, what about you?” William said as they walked down the stairs and turned to the direction o f his room.

Andrew took a glance at the other rooms, “So Rebekah left this morning huh?”

“Yeah, had some business to attend to somewhere.” William answered vaguely stating that it was all he was going to say on the matter.

An hour later they were in diner with Ivan and Arturo, two men assigned to protect them. Andrew called for the waitress and they all placed their orders, William placed his while ignoring the suggestive gestures from the waitress,

“You don’t even have to do anything.” Andrew folded his arms and smiled from the seat across him.

“What do you mean?” William turned to look out the window they were sitting close to.

“Oh please, she nearly took off all her clothes for you.” He wiggled his brows.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” William replied and turned to look at the lady who walked in, she was wearing a black high waist dress that hugged her upper body, went loose after the waist and stopped just shy of her knees, she was in red pumps and carried a bag so small he was sure it couldn’t hold a tiny pencil. She took look around the diner and caught his eye but didn’t notice and looked to the other end of the diner, her light brown hair reaching her lower back. He didn’t take his eyes off her and wasn’t paying attention to what Andrew was saying, he watched her head towards the counter, grab a stool and give her orders to the second waitress behind the counter then she turned back to look around once more and locked eyes with him.

Regan looked at the man staring at her and immediately noticed a few things about him, his dark brown hair, his deep concentrating eyes, his square and tight jaw leading down to his Adam’s apple that led further down to his body that even through the Blue T-shirt he wore she could see was toned and chiseled. She took in all of this in a matter of seconds and turned back to the counter.

“Here you are, enjoy.” the waitress laid the plate of fries and the milkshake on the counter and smiled at her.

She thought of how much more work she was going to have to do in he new job and made mental notes to organize and sort everything she could as fast as she could the next day, she was in the middle of making mental decisions when she heard a crash come from the back room.

“What is taking so long?” one of the men sitting at the table hollered.

The waitress hurried out with a tray of cups containing what she thought of as coffee and went for their table, “I’m sorry, there was a minor accident in the kitchen. It’ll just be a few minutes.” the poor waitress begged.

“What do you mean? That is unacceptable, you have a few seconds to bring out the food or there will be a problem. Is that understood?” the man who shouted got up and wagged his finger at the waitress ignoring the protests from the others at the table.

“I’m terribly sorry, if you could just be a little patient.” the waitress looked embarrassed, her clothes were covered in sauce which explained what the crash was, she looked around and saw she had already drawn the attention of the other people in the diner.

“What did I just say to you?” the man grabbed her hand. Regan stood immediately and headed for the table where they stood,

“What do you think you are doing?” she shouted at him, she saw the gorgeous looking man had also stood with the others and held their friend stopping him from doing anything else.

“Lady would you step back?” the second man sitting on the outside of the booth reached for her to keep her from moving closer.

“If you lay a hand on me I will have you picking your teeth and mopping your blood from the floor.” She snapped and watch him recoil sharply, the gorgeous man was apologizing to the waitress and turned to look at her quizzically.

“I’m terribly sorry for my friend, he seems to have lost his manners. I apologize.” he said to the waitress and smiled.

Regan waited for the waitress to walk back into the kitchen and turned back to the men who had sat back down. The man sitting inside on the left was smirking, the gorgeous looking man sat opposite him and the others sat on the outside of the booth. They all looked at her with faces of bemusement and wonder.

“Is something funny to you?” she put her hands on her waist.

“I’m sorry for my friend’s behavior, he isn’t a very patient person.” The gorgeous man replied smiling.

“Well it seems you should get new friends.” she said and noticed the change in mood around the table, the smiles faded and all eyes went to the man looking straight at her, his smile was faded and he looked at her with a neutral expression, he was obviously in charge of the group.

“I will consider it. In the meantime I think you should focus on your own matters and leave mine to me, don’t you think?” he stared at her, the annoyance beginning to show.

“If you and your associates are impatient then you should order at a drive through and not harass innocent waitresses.” she raised a brow and saw she has infuriated him the more.

He was offended now, nobody talked to him that way, everyone addressed him with respect, who did this girl think she was? Ivan had been a fool to lay a hand on the waitress and he had even been impressed to see someone stand up to Arturo and have him stand back, most people who did that were underground now but she was beginning to test his patience. “Do you have one in mind?”

“Check a map, go to one and stop being pests.” she turned to walk away.

“Pests?” his voice carried his anger and he couldn’t contain it, she had looked at him and he didn’t like the way she stared into his eyes like she was seeing his very soul.

“Yeah, be a bother to someone else.” she took the last word and walked back to her stool, she took a sip of her milkshake while maintaining eye contact with him. She dropped a few bills on the counter and walked out of the diner while still looking straight at him. William could feel his skin on fire as she stared at him, it didn’t consider the fact that everyone else was staring at him, all he wanted to do was leave and blow off the steam building inside him. He didn’t know what it was that made him angry about the way she looked at him but he didn’t like it, he ignored Andrew as he scolded Ivan and mocked Arturo, he picked at his food and when he eventually walked out of the diner an hour later all he wanted to do was go to a bar and hook up with someone.